Mare Nostrum

We took a bus tour from the port at Toulon, France up to the town of Aix-en-Provence with our guide Olivier. We had a leisurely walk through the old town, and enjoyed its Roman and medieval structures. Afterwards we had several hours to ourselves. At Olivier’s suggestion we went to a stand-and-snack cafe and ordered a ham, cheese and mushroom crepe. It was delicious, even though we had to eat it seated at an empty sidewalk cafe in the cold and wind. We bought candy at an upscale candy shop that specialized in a local delicacy, callisons, that a nobleman once had made for his unhappy wife. We tried it. It wasn’t bad. Then I got a cream horn and some serious coffee, which warmed me up for an afternoon of people watching. The high temperature only got up to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. As we returned to the ship, Olivier showed us a mountain range where Christian forces once stalled a Muslim invasion in the eighth century, Mont St. Victoire. The high, white cliffs of this marble range, also provided subjects for Cezanne’s paintings. In fact, he so enjoyed the light in this location that he bought a home that allowed him to see the daily changes in the mountain’s illumination. We returned to the ship in time for supper, where we said good-bye to our messmates and packed so that we could be ready to board the airplane in Barcelona the next morning for the flight back to the United States.Les mer